


The Forbidden City

by Pauliestorylover



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Identity Reveal, Alternate Dimension, Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Gabriel Agreste is an Asshole, Heavy Angst, Identity Reveal, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Identity Reveal, Multiverse, Royalty Drama, The Cons of Being A Royal, even in another dimension Gabriel Agreste is a terrible parent, royal intrigue, yes Felix is an Agreste in this story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:13:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23244574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pauliestorylover/pseuds/Pauliestorylover
Summary: The unthinkable has happened -Hawkmoth has won. Now stripped of their miraculous and stuck in another dimension, Adrien and Marinette have to find a way home and defeat Hawkmoth.At least things can't get much worse than it currently is....right?
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Kudos: 15





	1. Prologue

They had lost. It was the final battle against Hawkmoth, the battle Ladybug and Chat Noir had been waiting for since the first akuma had appeared 3 years ago. They had gone into battle full of confidence, feeling secure among their allies.

But their allies had fallen. One by one, the other miraculous holders were beaten. Some were erased, trapped or murdered by the akumas, while others became akumatized themselves. Soon, it was just Ladybug and Chat Noir left, the two of them against the world.

But they, too, were not infallible. Slowly, but gradually, the two superheroes faltered, hindered by their exhaustion and injuries, which had managed to reach them even through the protection of their miraculous.

In the end, no matter how hard they tried, their efforts were in vain. Hawkmoth still beat them and took their miraculous, something that had used to seem so impossible, but now felt inevitable. And so, Hawkmoth put on the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculous, soaking up the victory he had finally achieved after 3 long years of turmoil. He cackled, ignoring the carnage spread across the streets of Paris, ignoring the two broken teenagers curled up on the ground, too exhausted to get up after a full day of fighting with only a few breaks in between, ignoring Tikki, hysterically sobbing while trying to heal the two teenagers of their sore bruises and broken bones, ignoring Plagg, who was snarling and resisting the urge to Cataclysm Hawkmoth, for it would certainly mean the end of himself, Tikki and Nooroo.

If he had paid them even a morsel of attention, perhaps this story would have ended differently. Instead, he beckoned for one of his akumas to come forward, a mystical being with wisps of clouds and shining tattoos of golden dragons clinging onto its translucent body. With the purple outline of butterfly wings appearing on the akuma’s face, it lightly tapped the defeated teenager’s heads.

The two teenagers began to fade. Even amid Tikki’s frantic healing magic and Plagg’s furious threats, they became paler and paler, finally turning into no more than two incorporeal clouds of human-shaped mist. And so, Adrien Agreste and Marinette Dupain-Cheng disappeared from the surface of the earth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, they're not dead. Yet.


	2. Reveal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoo, I'm back. Hopefully the next chapter won't take so long to be posted.

Marinette woke up to darkness. This wasn’t right. Why was she asleep? She shouldn’t be asleep—she was fighting Hawkmoth! Had she been knocked out? But she—she wasn’t tied up, so she couldn’t have been captured. And her leg wasn’t broken anymore. What happened? Was it an akuma? Was Chat Noir with her?

“Chat?” She called out as she pulled herself into a sitting position, “where are you?”

She was surrounded by absolute darkness, but as she moved, Marinette bumped into a body. The body reached out to her, “Ladybug! Are you okay?”

“Chat!” Marinette sighed, relieved, “Do you remember what happened?”

“No, I—“ the voice stopped abruptly as a cloud passed to reveal the moon. A ray of moonlight shone onto the face of the boy in her arms, but instead of revealing a leather-clad boy with cat-like eyes and ears, a pair of very-human green eyes stared back at her.

Marinette shrieked. The boy shrieked back. “Adrien!?” “Marinette!”

“I can’t believe—“ “It was _you_ all along!” The two teens gaped at each other.

Adrien was the first to recover. He rubbed the back of his head and smiled awkwardly, “Well, I… That’s not how I thought our reveal would go…”

“Of course not! We were fighting Hawkmoth, then I blacked out, and the next thing I know is that Adrien is Chat Noir!” Marinette yelled, “Why are we detransformed anyway? Tikki?”

Adrien flinched. “Umm… Marinette?” He pointed at her earlobes, “I think…”

“What?” Marinette frowned, reaching up to touch her earlobes, only to find them empty, “I… No.” Her eyes widened.

Adrien glanced at his empty hands, and swallowed, “My miraculous is missing too.”

“No, no, no, no. Hawkmoth can’t have gotten our miraculous. It must have fallen off…or something… We can’t have lost them.” Marinette turned to pat the ground for her missing earrings. She came up with nothing but pieces of dirt and grass-stains on her palms. “…no.”

“Marinette.” Adrien began softly, “It’s okay. We can still call for backup, and we’ll win back the miraculous! Don’t worry. You’ll figure out a plan.”

“What backup? What plan?” Marinette snapped, “We used all of our backup in the fight and we _still_ lost! And now we’re stranded in the middle of nowhere! Kwamis know where Hawkmoth left us! And now he’ll make his ultimate wish and kill a lot of people and we won’t be able to do anything except grow old and die in this place and I’ll never be able to see Maman and Papa again…” Marinette buried her face into her hands. “We…just…” she sniffed, “we _failed_ …”

“Well… we’ll figure something out! We can find out where this place is and find a way back to Paris, and _then_ we can worry about a plan. We’ll be fine, like always. You and me against the world, remember, bugaboo?” Adrien raised his arms and engulfed Marinette in a hug.

Marinette relaxed into the hug, “I… thanks, Adrien…” She sniffed again, and rubbed her eyes, “I—we—no. We’ll be fine,” she took a deep breath, swallowing her tears and frustration, “like always.”

Adrien smiled warmly, “We can plan in the morning. We’ll be able to see our surroundings better anyway.”

“No.” Marinette disentangled herself from his arms, and gave him a tight smile, “We should make a move _now._ Hawkmoth probably won’t expect us back soon, so we should go back as soon as possible.” She glanced at the dark sky and the grassland around her, “Since it’s nighttime here, we’re probably in a different time zone. There’s a lot of grass here and only a few houses, so we’re probably in the countryside. So, if we—“

“Marinette. _Ladybug._ Please, we need to rest. My arm isn’t broken anymore, but I… we’ve been fighting all day. We need to rest, or we won’t be able to do whatever you plan to.”

Marinette shook her head, “I can’t… We can’t leave the miraculous with Hawkmoth for any longer. If we wait until morning, he might’ve made his wish already. Then it will be too late to do _anything—_ people will die, Hawkmoth might dominate the world _,_ and it will be _my fault_. And Tikki and Plagg—they’re probably suffering too. I just can’t… We _can’t wait_.”

“Well, we can’t do much if we can barely see anything. And it would take some time to find a way back to Paris anyway.” Adrien bit his lips, then added softly, “Marinette, I want to beat up Hawkmoth and rescue Tikki and Plagg too. People are relying on us, but we can’t save them if we aren’t at full strength.”

Marinette sighed, “…fine. But we should at least move somewhere with more cover, and set up watch. Anything can see us if we just sleep here out in the open. We should at least sleep under a tree or something.”

“How about there, then?” Adrien pointed to a tree some distance away. It was far enough from the nearby houses that the inhabitants won’t discover them easily.

Marinette shrugged. The duo got to their feet and walked over to the tree. Marinette frowned; even with her leg miraculously healed, it still felt strangely sore. Adrien had a point with resting up—she wouldn’t be able to walk far at this stage. She plopped under the tree with a slight relief. “Adrien, does your arm feel sore?”

Adrien frowned, “You mean the one that was broken? Not really. Does yours feel sore?” When Marinette shook her head, he continued, “Anyway, I should take the first watch.”

“Fine. But don’t you _dare_ let me sleep in and not get any sleep yourself. Wake me up after a few hours.” Marinette threatened.

Adrien laughed, “You know me too well, my Lady.”

Marinette hesitantly smiled—after everything that had happened today, it didn’t feel right to smile. That reminded her… “For the record, I’m glad it’s you.”

Adrien smiled as he leaned back against the tree, “Me too, my Lady.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short chapter, but I feel like Adrien and Marinette (and my readers, I love you guys) deserve a chapter with a happy ending before things hit the fan (well, more than things already have, anyway), so I ended the chapter here. Be glad, someone's gonna ~~nearly~~ die soon.


End file.
